According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, if Apple were to introduce a $300 contract-free iPhone, they could capture up to 11% of the low-end device market. Munster believes that this is possible for Apple to accomplish and also notes that the lower cost iPhone may be introduced this year, in September.
There are reports and rumors that support the possibility of a lower end iPhone for emerging markets, with Apple currently holding up to 42 percent of the high end smartphone market. Currently, Apple’s iPhone has a gross margin of 55%, which can be reduced to 30% if Apple were to introduce a lower cost iPhone. This means that the price would be cut in half, which would likely draw the attention of more potential customers.
It is possible that a lower cost iPhone would cannibalize sales of the current iPhone, meaning that the gross margin would drop by about 2%. Piper Jaffray has been most accurate in estimating Apple’s price target, lowering it from $767 to $688. Munster also noted that Apple will perform below the Wall Street estimate of $39.6 billion with about $35 billion. Apple is scheduled to report Q2 2013 earnings on April 23rd.
{Via AppleInsider}
]]> https://touchreviews.net/apple-cheaper-iphone-potentially-claim-11-share-lowend-device-market-2014/feed/ 2On Friday, Apple’s iPad mini and 4th generation iPad went on sale, and lines were shorter than other product launches. However, other retail locations experienced heavier traffic than usual and although hurricane Sandy prevented some customers from coming out to buy an iPad mini, Apple’s Fifth Ave Retail store sold out of iPad minis within two hours of going on sale. According to a report from Fortune, the Fifth Avenue store located on the East Side of Manhattan had over 800 people in line when the store opened at 10:00 AM, although the store was scheduled to open at 8:00 AM.
According to the records Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster has been keeping since 2008 (see below), that’s more customers than turned out for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4S.
And by 9:56 a.m. — four minutes before the doors finally opened — I counted 801 men, women and children. Only the iPhone 4 (1,300) and iPad 2 (1,190) drew bigger crowds.
An analyst at Topeka Capital Markets, Brian White noted that all three models of the White/Silver iPad mini were sold out at the Fifth ave location in a little over an hour, followed by the black models another 2 hours later.
We are at Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City and our checks now indicate that all of the White & Silver iPad mini models sold out at around 11:15 AM. We estimate that the 16GB and 64GB were sold out by 10:30 AM ET and the 32GB sold out at around 11:15 AM ET. […]
As of 11:40 AM ET, both the 16GB and 32GB Black & Slate iPad mini models were sold out at the Fifth Avenue NYC store; while we estimate the 64GB iPad mini sold out at around 12:10 PM ET.
Apple also experienced moderate lines at its Upper West Side store, located less than 2 miles from its flagship Fifth Ave location. The customers online at this location likely came over from the Fifth ave location, where Apple had to start cutting off lines after selling out. As customers entered the Upper West Side store with their tickets in hand, Apple employees cheered them on and then led them over to the iPad minis, stacked at the back of the store. It is unclear exactly how many of each capacity or color was available at each store, however, stocks of the new device will ease in the coming weeks, as demand meets distribution.
{Via MacRumors}
]]> https://touchreviews.net/apples-ipad-mini-sells-2-hours-ave-retail-store/feed/ 2Apple’s iPad mini is expected to be a big hit in the coming days and months. In a report from AppleInsider, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster mentioned that he believes Apple will sell about 1.5 million iPad mini in the first weekend of sales. The iPad mini goes on sale today, and will sell through the weekend, despite hurricane Sandy shutting down Apple’s Retail Stores on the East Coast for several days. During initial sales of the iPad mini, 4G LTE versions of the device will not be available but will go on sale later on this month.
Munster also mentioned that it is the “newness of the form factor for consumers” that will continue to the grow iPad sales, with 20-25% of the market accounted as smaller-sized tablets. Munster believes that people will realize the portability and the benefits of having the iPad experience in a smaller form factor. Prior to the release of the iPad mini, Munster also noted that five iPad minis would be equal to the cannibalization of one full sized iPad.
Gene Munster has a proven track record and has speculated on numerous other Apple products, including the original iPad, iPad 2 and iPhone. Munster is right in his speculation that the iPad will eventually come to lead the 7.9” tablet market, much of which is currently dominated by Android and Samsung devices.
]]> https://touchreviews.net/apple-expected-sell-15m-ipad-mini-first-weekend/feed/ 0Sound familiar?
We reported yesterday that the popular Consumer Reports website had withdrawn its interim recommendation of the iPhone 4 after conducting its own “technical analysis” of the device’s reception issue. Regardless of whether their analysis is accurate or not, Consumer Reports holds massive sway for US consumers. Consequently the internet is alight today with bloggers claiming that even their parents, and in some cases grandparents now know the that iPhone 4 has a fatal flaw!
Not everyone, however, is as convinced as some of the validity of Consumer Reports’ findings. Blogger Bob Egan, who spent much of his career as an electromagnetic engineer working on exactly the kind of issues that now face Apple on the iPhone 4, had this to say:
Consumer reports ‘RF’ engineers should know better than to think they can run an engineering grade test for an issue like this in a shielded room. And certainly not one with people in it.
To even reasonably run a scientific test, the iPhone should have been sitting on a non-metallic pedestal inside an anechoic chamber. The base station simulator should have been also sitting outside the chamber and had a calibrated antenna plumbed to it from inside the chamber.
Bottom line. From what I can see in the reports, Consumer Reports replicated the same uncontrolled, unscientific experiments that many of the blogging sites have done.
But still Cult of Mac have collected a band of “PR experts” who are baying for Apple to initiate a recall for the iPhone 4 immediately, or according to them face forever tarnishing their brand image!
All of this noise, and Apple ruffling more feathers today by apparently culling complaints about the iPhone 4 from their own web forums has caused this story to pick up more and more inertia. And now this story is well and truly finding its way onto more and more main stream media outlets.
Off the back of this noise AAPL (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock dropped around $10 earlier today. 3% down in a market that was overall around 1% up.
Soon after the mornings news some Wall street heavy weights weighed in with their view on the iPhone 4 situation…
“To date, we have not seen any overwhelming evidence of iPhone 4 units being returned,” Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes wrote.
“Ultimately we believe this PR black eye takes away some near-term upside, but it does not change the long-term trajectory” of the iPhone 4, wrote PiperJaffray’s Gene Munster.
Overall pretty much everyone from the markets seem to think that a product recall is “highly unlikely”.
And Citigroup’s analyst Richard Gardner still predicts a target price of $330/share for AAPL. And as the day draws on AAPL is on the rise again.
One thing that pretty much everyone on both sides of the growing divide between those that feel the iPhone 4 is flawed and should be recalled, and those that feel that this is a storm in a teacup, agree on the fact that Apple’s continuing silence, and their overall handling of this situation to date is extremely disappointing.
So, after weighing all the evidence so far perhaps you’d like to take part in our Poll?
Or share your thoughts in the comments…
]]> https://touchreviews.net/iphone-4-recall/feed/ 0A little over 24 hours ago we reported on the frustrating news that Apple (AAPL) seemed to be stashing iPad for in-store sales at its UK launch on the 28th of May. The knock on effect of that being that UK customers who had ordered online in the last week or so would have to wait until the 7th of June to get their iPad. Over a week after they would be in Apple Stores on general sale!
It seems though, that Apple is having problems all over the place keeping up with the demand for iPads. So maybe they are a bit panicky about having stock for their stores. Especially high profile launches like the UK one.
Gene Munster has been Apple Store hopping, and making calls again, and has come to the conclusion that 74% of Apple stores are sold out of iPads in the US. The remaining 26% only have Wi-Fi models available. Reserving an iPad in an Apple store that has no stock will get you one in 4-7 days. Whilst ordering online will get you one about 7-10 days later.
From those figures, and accounts of when Apple says it will have more iPads available for those who order now, Munster has surmised that Apple may not hit its own target of 2.5 – 3 millions iPads sold in this quarter.
I am not so sure. It is entirely possible that Apple is keeping supplies back for the several countries that the iPad launches in next week. In which case it may well hit, or surpass those targets anyway.
Do you think Apple is hoarding iPads? Or do you think they have had massive manufacture problems? Let us know in the comments.
[businessinsider] ]]> https://touchreviews.net/apple-ipad-sold-out-us/feed/ 0Munster noted that 49 of the 50 stores that had iPad 3Gs were sold out by Sunday, which spurred sales of the Wi-Fi only model.
Overall the iPad 3G sold as many units in its first weekend as the WiFi model did on its first day. And this now means Apple has sold over 1 Million iPads domestically. International sales, as we all know, are yet to start.
Munster is currently predicting sales of 4.3 Million iPads for 2010. I think this is a very conservative estimate.
Did you pick up an iPad 3G or WiFi this weekend? Let us know in the comments.
]]> https://touchreviews.net/apple-ipad-3g-sale-figures-300000/feed/ 0Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray analyst, sent an e-mail to Cult of Mac on the issue. Piper Jaffray is an international investment and securities firm with expertise in many areas. Piper Jaffray analysts regularly comment on issues surrounding technology as a whole and Apple in particular. In his e-mail to Cult of Mac, Mr. Munster revealed his opinion that the issues around the Gizmodo story would force Apple to publicly release the new iPhone “sooner versus later”. Mr. Munster’s reasoning revolves around a very basic assumption of market economics; people aren’t going to buy last year’s model if they know ahead of time that a newer model is coming soon with the features they want. iPhone 3GS sales will slow, as the line of reasoning goes, and people will stop buying it in anticipation of the new model. If Apple wants to sustain high sales figures, it needs to get the next iPhone in the market as soon as possible; preferably not waiting until the anticipated launch in June.
While Mr. Munster is certainly a respected analyst who is a lot closer to the pulse of the tech industry than I am, I don’t think Apple will feel the need to rush the new iPhone out into public. I think Apple really just wants this whole situation with Gizmodo and the iPhone prototype to go away. Through this whole situation I’ve been reading and listening to John Gruber at the Daring Fireball blog. John is probably one of the three people whose opinion on Apple I respect the most. He thinks for now Apple just wants this story to go away and I’m inclined to agree with him. More than anything, in my opinion not Mr. Gruber’s, I think Apple would rather this all just fell back into the background until late June. On June 22nd Steve can come out on stage and introduce the new iPhone with a relatively clean slate.
The other reason I think Apple won’t rush to release the iPhone is that it simply may not be technically feasible to do so. While many would like to believe what we saw on Gizmodo is the iPhone in final form, let’s face it, it was a prototype. And probably a prototype among many, if not more than a dozen, prototypes that exist. Apple simply may not be ready to release it yet. The feature list may not be finalized and software may still be in development. Say what you will about Apple but they are fastidious about quality. Rushing to market with an unfinished product just to meet expectations or sustain sales is a Microsoft move, not Apple. I just don’t see them trading in this guiding principle to fore go flat iPhone sales for one month.
I will be as surprised as anyone if the next generation iPhone comes out ahead of the assumed June 22nd release date. Is it possible? Of course, anything is possible with Apple. I just don’t see any impetus for Apple to do so. The longer they let this story fade into the background, the better it is in the end for them. As talk shifts from the actual prototype to the legal implications for Gizmodo, people will soon forget it was even a story and turn their attention back to the rumor and speculation that feeds the Apple media machine so well.
Should Apple try to get the new iPhone out sooner rather than later? Do you think Apple will experience a couple of flat months in iPhone sales as people hold off purchasing the iPhone 3GS? Would you hold off knowing what you know now about the new iPhone prototype? Leave us your thoughts in the comments section.
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